Royal crockery, gin and Kate and Wills cupcakes – this is camping, but not as we know it, writes RÓISÍN INGLEin London
YOU are one of hundreds camping out overnight in the Queen’s front yard for a spot of Right Royal Rubbernecking. The contents of your rucksack are exhaustive. Will and Kate masks. Two-litre bottles of Pimms.
Finger-sized cucumber sandwiches – no crusts – jars of pickled onions and a vast selection of pound shop tiaras. Catherine Middleton and William Wales aren’t the only ones who have been up to high-doh for this event one will have you know.
“Checkmate Kate, you’ve taken the King” was a typical banner in these parts yesterday. And oh, the bunting. Strung up everywhere from Westminster Abbey to James’s Park all the way down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Miles of it. So much that somebody at a high-level UN meeting must surely be right this minute discussing the global bunting shortage that the nuptials has kicked off. David Cameron will be trying to offload the resulting bunting mountain for years.
It will all have been worth it though. What a swell party this is. London in her best bib and tucker, loyal subjects and international royal watchers lining the streets eating cream teas from union jack paper plates while glamazon American news anchor/supermodels practise their commentary.
Libby Hughes (19) from Birmingham was around two decades younger than the average happy camper. Like many young women she was particularly interested in The Dress and The Kiss. “It’s like because she’s not a royal, even though she’s posh, we can be there to give her support, commoner to commoner,” she said. Kate is about as common as caviar, but still, it was a nice thought.
Nearby a group of friends calling themselves the right royal rabble were attracting serious media attention for their camp, which had the air of a boutique music festival. “Glastonbury is camping, this is glamping,” said Babs, revealing that actually they also had a hotel room booked in a nearby hotel for hot showers and that most of their quite amazing spread had come from Fortnum and Mason and that they’ll be watching the ceremony and “the balcony snog” on an iPad today.
The table groaned with scones, royal crockery and Kate and Wills cupcakes while in the evening they draped the trees with fairy lights and their patch of central London was turned into a gin palace in honour of the late Queen Mother. All this was presided over by “HRH” Brendan Murphy, an Irish member of the crew. No wonder a CNN journalist confessed he had got himself “embedded” there by pitching his tent within licking distance of their Victoria sponge cake.
Closer to the palace, hardcore royal watcher after hardcore royal watcher declared they had no truck with tents or frivolous creature comforts, swearing that a fold-up seat and a layer of tinfoil were all they needed to see them through the night. Some were clearly veterans.
Behind a banner reading “Hampshire Royalists Here, Again and Again” four older women snoozed on deckchairs, one shielding her face from the afternoon sun with a William and Kate tea towel. The wedding souvenirs are legion. You can even get royal wedding sick bags although good luck trying to flog them around here.